When using a snowblower to remove snow, a user will often move in a first linear direction until reaching the end of some real or imaginary boundary. By doing so, the user throws snow in a consistent direction, usually to the side of the directional movement. After reaching the boundary, the user will generally turn the snowblower 180° and continue to remove snow by moving in a direction opposite of the first linear direction. During this return, the snow is thrown in a direction opposite that of when the user was moving in the first linear direction. As such, snow is thrown in areas that may have already been passed over by the snowblower and were clear of snow. To prevent such problems, snowblowers often include means for rotating a snowblower chute so that snow can be thrown in a consistent direction no matter which direction the snowblower is being directed.
Typically, snowblower chute controls can be mechanical or electrical mechanisms. Mechanical controls can have a gear system in which a control handle is connected to the gear system for rotating the snowblower chute. A crank shaft, for example, can be used to transfer rotational motion from a shaft to a gear system that is directly configured to the snowblower chute for rotational movement. Electrical controls can typically include a joystick-type control handle that is mechanically linked to a gear system configured directly to the snowblower chute. Thus, movement of the joystick-type control handle elicits movement on the snowblower chute.
Electrical chute controls provide an obvious advantage over purely mechanical systems in that the user need only trigger an electrical input to drive the rotation of the snowblower chute. Electrical controls can often be complex systems, however, having a variety of interlinking electrical, mechanical, hydraulic, and/or structural components. As a result, the complexity of these systems can contribute to costly and time-consuming assembly. Thus, it would be advantageous to have an electrical snowblower chute control system that minimizes the number of separate components to reduce time spent—and thus help reduce the cost—of assembling the snowblower chute control mechanism.
Therefore, improved snowblower chute controls are provided for electrically controlling the rotation of a snowblower chute with an easy-to-assemble control mechanism.